Home | Reviews | Excerpts | Pictures | Q&A | People Index | Place Index | Map | Contacts

Readers Comment :    a few samples

What a fascinating 'read' that is!! I am amazed at how much humor [Aleks] was able to put into this story of what was a frightening time in his life, even though it written from the viewpoint of his youth! He was able to put the reader into the times and the mindset of the "characters" involved. No small feat, that!

Ronee H,   Florida

I bought your book in London, UK, last week and finished it in two days. I thought it was an excellent read, reminiscent of Varlam Shalamov's Kolyma Tales, or Solzhenitsyn's  Gulag Archipelago, only more readable. It's a story that every one should know, now if only you could make it into a film. Looking forward to the next one.

Max E.

I've just finished your book and really enjoyed it, it's beyond comprehension what you and the others had to go through.

Niall G., UK

Subject: " Excellent Book"

I came through an enthusiastic review of your book after reading  The Long Walk. Your account is fine and your writing shows a mastery of the english language, but above all a decent fine young man. I find it Polish at its best.

It would be a honour to know of you. I would like very much that my little daughter -she is about 7 years old. could meet you and appreciate your example in the future. When she will need it most.

Ignacio W. P.,    Madrid, Spain

I thought you might like to know that I found your book in the Liahana Public Library in Maui, Hawaii. It had been acquired in August 2001 and had circulated 5 times (a good record for war books in that library). I am an avid reader of W.W. II  related books and thoroughly enjoyed yours as did my wife (who normally never reads war books). Looking forward to your next book or books.

Frank R.,   Milton, ON, Canada

I have just finished reading Without Vodka.

I think God put you there at that time because although there was no photographer, you had the photographic memory.

Although you had no video recorder, you had the gift for putting people, places, and events in clear and concise words.

Although there was no cartographer, you were able to map out the routes from beginning to end.

 Although those people responsible for this atrocity had no souls, yours more than made up for that deficiency.

And although you suffered a lot, I thank the Lord for sending you there.

You are God's gift to Humanity. For how else would and could we have known?

Doris P. B. (Filipino married to a Swiss born in 1943),    Philipines

I'm a 20-year-old 'Polka' living in Australia. Just a quick note, a thank you, for composing such an inspirational, powerful and insightful piece. I have read many WWII accounts - yours stands out. I respect your courage for sharing ' Topolski's ' experience with the world - nothing much left to say but congratulations !

Ewelina K.,   Perth, Australia

Your book will help to provide Poles of my generation with a window into the early lives of our parents.

Henry S. Mississauga, ON Canada 

_____________________________________________________________________

Thanks Joan. You have got an AMAZING man there. Not only did he go through all those horrors, but to remember details and share with all of us. It makes me understand just why dad was so 'cold' towards everyone. I think I know what made him, eventually, take his own life [I found him when I was a teenager and always blamed myself]. Now, perhaps it wasn't me. Thank you, Alexander!

L.L.    Manchester, England

_____________________________________________________________________

Last night after finishing your wonderful narrative I stood up and gave you a standing ovation. It may have looked silly to anyone passing by my front yard to see a solitary man standing , applauding and giving a rousing cheer but not seeing anyone that was receiving this accolade.

I had been reading your work for several evenings, trying to put myself into your situation so that when you finally left Russian soil after all of your harrowing experiences, I felt as though I had escaped right along with you. Both my parents spent many years in German labor camps during the war and I was born in a D.P. camp. Some of the stories my parents told were quite horrific but did not compare with what went on in Russia. I remember my dad's uncle telling stories of being interned in Russian prisons and labor camps and how he joined Anders army and fought in North Africa and Italy. I was very young at the time and did not pay to much attention .

Your book has caused me to re-examine the history of that awful time and to expose the truth that is woefully missing from the standard history of WW2.

I believe that you mentioned that your wife is after you to write a second volume. I whole heartedly second the motion.

Jan J.    Portland, Oregon

_____________________________________________________________________

Having just finished your book I thought I'd write a short note to say how much I enjoyed (if that's the right word) it.  In many ways it mirrored a journey by my father from Grodno via Arkangel, across Russia by train

Dudley N, Hereford, UK

_________________________________

The book was like a revelation for me, since it appears that you, my grandmother, and her young daughter (my mother) were part of the same series of events.

As a boy, I was told of their journeys: leaving Bialostok for the Suwalki region soon after the German invasion; their middle-of-the-night arrest in Suwalki by Ukranians and Germans; deportation to a forced-labor lumber camp in the Soviet Union near the Omsk region; endless manual sawing of large trees; constant hunger, a diet of only onions for months, and an ad_hoc tribunal convened to determine the rationing of one spoon of coarse flour; finagling release from the typhus-ridden camp by association with Polish military staff; travelling southward in cattle cars in the general direction of Tehran; starvation, scurvy, typhus, and death; deciding to leave the train in Turkestan (a dream suggested departing there) and to take up with a camel-led caravan of nomads and refugees; finagling passage (using rugs as barter) to Pakistan and, later, Kenya; and emigration to England with the Polish Army reforming there.

Of course, you can imagine my amazement when your fantastic story unfolded in parallel with that of my grandmother.

Joseph K.,  Massachusetts, USA

__________________________________________________________________

Recently finished your book with a mind to understand something of my Grandfather's time as a prisoner for 7-years in the USSR; he too was one that survived even though he was a German. Your writings are touched with something special and although I am not gifted with your literary skills would like to thank you for opening a door of my family history of which so much is missing. I look forward very much to your new book and wish you a long and happy life.

Pete S., West Sussex, England

top

I feel that the best history is personal history, and your account is among the best I have read of those times, and the only account from that hidden realm of the USSR. . . .

In the US I would say that knowledge about the role of the USSR in World War 2 is non existent. The alliance was not a trusting one, and the cold war ended any feelings of compatriotism between folks in the US and the USSR. And so we know nothing at all -- it's as if they never existed. Your account is all the more wonderful for illuminating this distant realm.

Jim H.,   USA

top

Sincerely, Edith Grant

_____________________________________________

Please let Aleks know that more than enjoy his book, I found very deep and meaningful messages for me in it - aside from me wanting to eat the whole time when he was going hungry, almost as though I was trying to feed him. I found appreciation in his book, which I've incorporated into my everyday now.

Fil B, Chelsea, QC, Canada

_____________________________________________________________

Thanks for reminding me of all the good and free things that we have and that we don't appreciate anymore.

Ricardo V, Texas, USA

top

Thanks for your e-mail. I am feeling fine and calm. I hope you are
the same and that your enthusiasm about Without Vodka lasts till
the last page.
Don't worry. There will be no real war in America. Retain your
sense of proportion. Five thousand people gone is sad and shocking,
but each month in the USA comparable numbers are killed in car
crashes, die from tobacco, or succumb to the ravages of diabetes.
You're more apt to win a million dollar lottery than to be hurt by
terrorists, even in New York (where my daughter lives). Their aim
is to terrorize us and instil fear. Don't let them do it.
There will always be some deranged and dangerous individuals among
us. We cannot help that. Carry on with you own life and the usual
routine. Believe in your own strength. Praise your children and/or
other youths when they deserve it, and grown-ups too. That's what
gives us self confidence and the strength to do what we have to do.
Seek solace in books. Avoid the hype of the day-to-day media out to
garner audiences by shocking us and milking the story as long as it
raises their ratings.
Keep reading and keep in touch,

Aleks

Thanks for writing me back!  I am also in New York, like your daughter is.
I witnessed the attack from the windows of my office building.  I went out
on the street on the day of the attack and heard planes coming overhead,
even though they were all supposed to be grounded.  I tried to "take cover"
- in a doorway, if you can believe it!  Then I saw they were army planes,
probably F16 fighter planes.  Two days later we had a bomb scare in this
building and were all evacuated down the stairs.  Right after I got out on
the street, there was some other scare - people said the subway was about
to blow up - and I wound up running in a near-riot, trying to get away from
the explosion that never came because that was a hoax, too.

It's been just horrific here, no question about it!  But you're right.  More
people die in car accidents.  And I've been thinking lately that the Taliban
probably lost nineteen of its most "elite," for lack of a better word, terrorists
in the suicide missions.  They are now short of a "varsity team," so to speak.

Your book remains terrific and I'm really glad that you wrote it!  I really enjoy
reading first-person narratives about World War II - don't ask me why I like to
learn about that time period so very much, but I do.  I suppose it's because so
many bizarre things - such as persecuting the Jews - were not only practised but
considered LEGAL.  Your story is unique and one of the most readable I've come
across, too!

Where does your daughter work - is she near Ground Zero?

Take care!  And thanks for your wonderful reply.

Caroline

It never ceases to amaze me what has been done in the name of every philosophy you can name, but none worse than done by communism in this century. Some "answer"!

And how when things seem challenging here in America (Utah, at the moment, to be exact), there is ALWAYS something to refer to in my past, to make it seem not so bad. And even that pales tremendously before the hardships anyone like myself, spared direct exposure to war, has no real idea of.  My father's stories from Okinawa and Iwo Jima we're not pleasant and not talked of much, but they had a crippling effect of him. We'll see about my generation....

Thanks again, and best wishes. Please thank your wife for insisting that you write your stories down!

Blake I.    Sandy, Utah, USA

___________________________________________

Your tale filled me with a sense of sadness, astonishment and pride. Sadness due to the vast scale of suffering that you witnessed and had to go through as a young man (and of course the countless millions of others) in the Soviet camps. Astonishment at how you were able to survive in this harsh environment for years and pride in the knowledge that the human race is stronger than what modern society makes it out to be. Pride in knowing that good triumphed over evil and that come what may, as long as there are people on this earth who have the same mentality and resilience as you, its going to be ok.

Thank you for having put your experience to paper

Timothy B.

top